made for mothering

I remember the very first night home with our oldest daughter. Exhausted from birthing but riding the high of initiating new life, my husband, Zach, and I stared at her wondering one thing.

What should she wear to bed?

We tried footed pajamas, but I had read newborns can easily overheat so we took those off. Next was a sleeveless onesie, but however we spun that option it just did not seem warm enough for a tiny baby born only hours prior. We landed on a three-quarter sleeve sleepsack which was lightweight but also cozy enough to keep our sweet baby bundle just right.

During our fashion show of a dilemma, our daughter wailed and cried, demanding we quickly learn the appropriate amount of time one should require to decidedly clothe her.

And we did learn. We learned because we had to. In the moment and on the job.

Nearly three years and another baby later and I know what babies really want is for you to be quick in general. There is not much to picking out the perfect outfit, sleep or otherwise. Dress them how you would want to be dressed for warmth and you will be in great shape.

I share this story to deliver good news: Motherhood changes your life, and for the better.

As you mother for the very first time, your baby also learns you for the very first time. There is magic in the design, timed perfectly.

You can read all the books, watch all the other moms, listen to the podcasts, and have the top-of-the-line baby gear ready to go, but you cannot be a mother until your baby makes you one. These meek and mild children are the finest teachers, refining and redefining many facets of the women we were prior to motherhood.

The Lord calls them our inheritance, lifelong blessings, and says they are His treasure.

How sweet it is to know our mothering is their childhood. Sweet and convicting. It is a daily dying to self to put my children’s needs before my own flesh. But in that transformation, I see how God made me for mothering.

Since choosing my baby’s first set of pajamas years ago, I have made many more decisions concerning her. Some have practical implications: making sure she eats some of the caloric portion of her meal along with the half cup of ketchup she insists be at the ready for each meal, always holding hands when walking in the parking lot, or teaching her to kindly deliver a “thank you”. Others have intangible effects which I hope to see future fruit of: memorizing Matthew 12:34 (“For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”, equally good for a mama to memorize!), seeing her through a tantrum for the tenth time today, or talking about the importance of patience as a virtue.

Amongst it all, it is clear that I am made for mothering. And if you are a mother, you were without a doubt made for the (best) job too.

I look forward to what the Lord has in store for this blog. We are most certainly all in motherhood together, and I’ll say it feels like your heart is home when you finally realize and surrender to the truth that you were made for the holy work of mothering, and get this…you’ve already got the job!